. well on come to wourd wide exchange. as is an decide barrels towards the east code, u.s. authorities order thousands to evacuate for the the biggest storm. >> my first message is to all the people across the eastern seaboard atlantic going north that you need to take this very seriously. >> all u.s. stock markets will be closed today. its first weather related closures in 27 years. and shares in ubs rise in the open after reports swiss bank may cut 10,000 investment banking jobs and wind down up to 15 trading businesses.

police wen and his family fight back. their lawyers call it untrue and are considering legal action against the "new york times." for our u.s. viewers, the show will be on just one hour this week because europes has gone off daylight savings time, so we're just four hours ahead now of new york time. hurricane sandy is also still several hours away from make landfall, but the impact of the storm is already being felt. transportation has ground to a halt as new york and other major eastern cities have shut down mass transit, airlines canceling flights and in new york city,

mayor bloomberg has ordered the evacuation of some 375,000 people from low lying areas. the new york stock exchange and nymex are in that evacuation zone and are affected today. those markets plus the nasdaq and cboe will be closed today and possibly tomorrow. cme says it may not reopen to tuesday's session. exchanges, brokers and regulators are worried about integrity of markets and cooperate ensure the safety of the employees on site. the last time the u.s. financial markets were closed for a nonholiday event was after 9/11. the last time the new york stock exchange was closed for a weather related issue was 1985 and that was due to hurricane gloria. the u.s. energy complex could take a hit from hurricane sandy. we'll have an update on that

shortly. but first let's take a look at european markets. though we started to open slightly higher today, losses are accumulating. ibex 35 over in spain shedding about 0.4%. we want to know your hurricane stories. you can e-mail our tweet us. joining us now is stewart hitch arrested son, rmg wealth management. good morning. your initial thoughts here as we look at the impact of sandy barreling down on new york. we know a lot of trading is shut down. are people routing trades through london? >> you can try to separate the fundamentals from liquidity. fundamentals won'ten drastically changed in the medium term, but

if markets get through calmly and people don't panic, we'll be back at the end of the week. if there is panic, liquidity could dry up and could be a crazy couple of days. >> liquidity issue is actually an important one. we've seen others sort of recommend clients steer clear of markets for a couple of days. what's interesting, that will just exasser balt the issue understandably saying people just come back towards the end of the week, but what does it mean for those who may be trading today? >> spreads whether be wider. and if you don't need to trade, staying out of the markets is probably the right thing to do. clearly this is a negative turn. take one step back and not try to think about the next day or

next 36 hours, the action we've seen in the last several weeks, as well, which to mean has been a little bit under the cautious side. just over a month ago go, we had the inception of qe-3. since that time, markets haven't gone up and last week or so, trading is choppy at best. we come into the storm and support gets broken, maybe stop loss in the markets. >> what accounts for the negative tone we're seeing in today's session? >> initially of course we'll see shall sort of damage. we don't know how much. but it will be near tens of billions of dollars. and insurers will have to at smes point potentially pay out, they have to create liquidity, which would mean selling assets. p so there could be a knock on effect on retail sales.

so that sort of impact will probably be contained. u.s. has storms every year. but this time it's liquidity because it's in the northeast. >> highly unusual. i was in the estastates until l saturday night and to see the meteorologists talk about how the storm is going offshore and veering back towards new york, combining with the other storm coming from the midwest, extraordinary. we'll have plenty more to get into. first of all, we want to check on markets in asia. >> a lackluster day of trade for asian markets with earnings firmly in focus. china construction bank and agricultural bank higher than expected q3 results thanks to stable loan ratios. banks under pressure in the mainland along with weakness and developers and commodity player

dragging the shanghai composite lower by a third of a percent. but mainly banks gained ground in hong kong. china telecom also gained nearly 1% despite posting an 8% falling q3 earnings on higher costs. but those gains were countered by the hugs losses in property developers. the hopping congress government has announced pressure measures to curb property speculation given housing prices have surged 20% in the first nine months. elsewhere, shares in taiwan hit a 13 honesty low with htc tumbling 7% after brokers cut its price target. the nikkei ended just a tad below the line, it's actually light trading ahead of tomorrow's boj meeting. honda cut after is an cut in outlook. korean currency strength fell, but some lg units surged on strong earnings. kospi ended flat.

the asx 200 managed to to finish marginally in the green. developers and utilities outperformed. sensex now lower by about a quarter of a percent. >> let's take a look at trade in europe and u.s. futures which are trading as usual this morning, dow jones industrial average if it were to open today implied to shed about 55 points. nasdaq and s&p also pointed lower. that largely does cue off the attitude in european trade. it's noted we've seen losses about half a percent across the ftse and xetra dax, cac 40 down 0 on.9%, ibex shedding about half a percent. bonds, whin he left a week or so ago, spanish yields were pretty much exactly where they're sitting today, 5.6%. italy is 4.96837 and they have auctions coming up later this week, five and ten year debt. the u.s. treasury is moving somewhat lower and so are the

german bunds this morning. 1.51 and 1.73. quick look at information reks, euro dollar is shedding a third of a percent. the dollar is rebounding against the yen. aussie dollar just fractionally higher as well as sterling-dollar shedding about a third of a percent, as well. now, on cnbc.com, it's all about hurricane sandy. here are the top three stories trending. you can find out why sandy has grown into the frankenstorm. and as the weather front moves to the east coast, you can read up on what impact authorities are bracing for and what about the economic impact. you can also find out about the ten most expensive hurricanes in u.s. history. you can probably guess number one which came in at $45 billion worth of damage. stick around because coming up next, we'll head out to zurich for the latest on ucbs.

welcome back to the program. the u.s. energy complex could take a hit from hurricane sandy. about 6.5% of the refining xhas is located in the storm's path on the east coast. mary thompson is live at the port of baltimore and she has

more. >> reporter: greetings from baltimore, kelly. a rainy baltimore this morning. of course the worst of it hasn't happened yet, that's expected later tonight. keep in mind that baltimore is on the southern part of this storm, what is expected in this region of washington, d.c. are very hefry rains. nevertheless in light of the massive size of this storm, the port of baltimore which is a bit east of here as well as other ports in the united states, have closed down. there is some they were natural operations here in the port of baltimore, but what this means for the refining industry here in the u.s. is that refiners along the east coast are not going to be able to take any delivery of crude for the next day or so until the ports are open. again, what we're seeing now in the northeast refineries, keep in mind they account for about 6.5% of total production here in the u.s. some of them are shutting down including the linden, new jersey

refinery that's operated by phillips 66. it expects to be shut town completely by about 6:00 this morning. delta's trainer refinery, they said we're prepared for the storm but wouldn't give further details. but be do are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline.webe do are reports pb refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline. be do are reports pbfe refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline.hvabe do are reports p are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline.ebe do are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline. do are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline.do are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline.o are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did see a pop in the price of gasoline. are reports pbf are refusing capacity. we did are re keep in mind because so many people won't be driving during the storm, that will reduce demand. demand is about 2 million barrels a day in the area affected by hurricane sandy. so depending on how long the refineries are shut down or production is reduced, that could off onset -- be offset, i should say, by a decrease in demand. of course a concern is power outages and especially flooding because flooding takes a long time to clean up. so we'll be watching that throughout the day and we'll

bring you other upsdates. kelly, i'll send it back to you. a very rainy baltimore this morning. not much wind here yet. >> thanks mary. these are your headlines. sandy is barrels towards the east coast. could be the biggest storm to ever hit the u.s. mainland. all u.s. stock markets will be closed today. these are the first weather related closures in 27 years. wen and his family are fighting back against report of accumulated billions in wealth. and ubs shares are rising as the swiss bank is reportedly set to announce up to 10,000 job cuts worldwide. carolyn roths has the details in zurich. carolyn, where are the job cuts going to fall? >> probably the investment bank

as that's the basis for the cuts. specifically the fixed income unit will see a major restructuring. as a part of that plan, the fixed income unit will be separated away from the equities, advisory division and then the fixed income unit will be wound down over the next three years. so that's a pretty radical shift in the investment banking strategy. but trationale is it's not very comfortable anymore and secondly, ubs severally can't compete with the top five players in the fixed income business. as a result of that, the ft and other news outlets report that up to 10,000 jobs could go, obviously not all at once, but probably over the next two to three years and that's equivalent to 16% of the total workforce, so massive job cuts if indeed it is true and it could be announced as early as tomorrow. that's when ubs reports third quarter numbers. all in all, though, not a big surprise given that ubs is still grappling with the effects of the debt crisis, lower market

confidence of course but also the regulatory impact from the higher capital requirements. so we'll have to wait and see until tomorrow morning 6:45. that's when ubs reports numbers. >> carolyn will be up bright and early ready for that one. thanks very much. stewart richardson is still with us. we see the share response up 5% about that rin investors whistling past the graveyard here? >> most interesting clearly banks here in europe are struggling to generate revenue growth. yes, quite a brave call. clearly investors are saying, great, why not reward that type of sort of capital usage and focus on the areas where they can make a decent return and make a profit. so i think it's actually quite a decent move. banks clearly have to make some changes because the current environmentment is not necess y

necessarily sustainable. >> and we've seen all these different plans coming fort from financials.sustainable. >> and we've seen all these different plans coming fort from financials. how much worse will it get? >> it's also the regulatory environment. the barclays particularly in this country, a whole focus on bank management pay and so on. so clearly they're trying to respond to that regulatory and social push for lower pay to bank management. so with all of this in mind, if they can control costs, they can refocus business on either higher margin business or better quality business, at some point will be profitable. >> it broaden out to the market in general, you point out that, yes, earnings have been relatively in line with the paths. beating estimates like two-third of the time, but falling short

on the revenue side. it doesn't necessarily point to a stronger market longer term. >> to me the early season in the u.s. has been poor. share negative for the first time in three years year on year. and revenue growth will be one of the key metrics to look at in the current environment. if nominal terms these countries cannot generate growth, what ask z. it mean for the global economy. >> 63% of cash flow is going to buy backs. what were the sectors where it was over 100%? >> energy us a one. and i think it was said earlier on that investment has been one of the missing ingredients here. >> we'll be right back with details from india.

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s&p 500 would be implied to open by five, dow by almost 50 and nasdaq by 15. largely consistent with the kind of trading we've seen across europe and much of asia this

morning. china gears up for a once in a tech and i had leadership change, dirty laundry is being aired over it country leadership. wen and his family are fending off a enerreport that his famils accumulated billions of wealth. and a report suggests china's big state owned banks are looking to ditch london's strict financial rules by routing more business elsewhere. a foreign bank lobry says one of china's main banks is already doing three times its business in lex himburg where rules are softer. others are shifting management there, as well. this would be a blow to british government. weekend protests in an eastern chinese city has shot down a plan to expand a refining and petrochemicals facility. the $8.9 billion project has been suspended pending further

review. some 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets protesting against the plant citing health and environmental concerns. the gdp done grades. threat of an s&p debt rating cut to junk. >> thanks very much. yes, indeed, the government of i said i can't is very concerned about the fiscal deficit situation and the finance minister unveiling the consolidation plan, something that hasn't gone on particularly well with the markets because they're not willing to believe the fiscal map. let's talk about what the government intendses to close fy 13 with. the budgeted number 5.1, saying there will be a slippage, but

they hope to contain to 5.3%. most estimates peg the fiscal deficit numberner from 5.7 to 5.9%. but as i said, the finance minister coming out all guns blazing and saying it cannot be a business as usual promise. the tough decidings will need to be taken. they are talking about the decisions on the taxation front. they hope to divest the government's share holding. the spectrum sale should give them another strengthening rupee will bring down their import subsidy especially as far as oil sub s citydyes are concerninged. so the government at this point in time is clear, they're also sending out a message to the reserve bank of india. it announces its mop taker

poli policy, they feel it could be a signal the government is serious about bringing the fiscal deficit under control. back to you. >> all right. thanks for that report. stewart, just wondering on evaluation basis whether developing markets are starting to look more attractive to you. >> emerging markets certainly in asia have been underperforming and assuming there's no major hick upto t hiccup to the global economy. so i think there's a case for saying emerging markets are beginning to look more attractive. >> interesting because the u.s. has been described as the better house on the block for much of the last couple of years. >> i think it has. if you look at what's happening in europe, you can understand

why people would focus on the u.s. there are slow downs concerns with china, clearly people have been comfortable with the u.s. but there are major concerns which the u.s. seem to be glossing over in terms of the fiscal cliff. we're not sure how -- i can see how they can kick the can down the road, but how do they solve their fiscal deficit which is only set to get worse without any change. >> and we'll get into more of this in just a couple minutes. stewart will also stick around. coming up, we'll bring you the latest on hurricane sandy. it is about to make landfall. and the effect the storm is having on the last leg of the u.s. election campaign. and as we head to break, here's a quick look at how future which is are trading are trading ahead of what won't be the open on wall street.

all u.s. stock markets will be close the today. this is the first wealth related closures in 27 years. and shares in ubs are rising at the open after reports the swiss bank may cut 10,000 invest him banking jobs.

and wind down up to 15 trading businesses. plus wen and his family fighting back against reports of accumulated wealth. lawyers call it up true and are considering legal action against the "new york times." futures are trading today but may not be trading tomorrow depending on sandy. they're heading lower in futures trade. ben, major indexes closed today, but the mood across europe has largely been consistent with what we're seeing. major bourses shed buildiding a half a percent. the impact of the storm which could be the biggest ever to hit the u.s. mainland is already being felt. the new york stock exchange

nymex, nasdaq and cboe will be closed take and possibly tomorrow. although the nymex is still having electronic trading. the cme says u.s. stock and options future trading will close as usual at 9:15, but may not reopen for tuesday's session. we can turn our attention to our pea an markets. ftse 100 shedding half a percent, xetra dax 0.6%. contact 140 is the underperformer down almost 0.9%. the the ibex 35 in spain holding up a little bit better, down about 0.4%. so how do you make money in these markets? hear's what some experts have been telling us. >> we're a bit more positive on sterling.rar's what some expert been telling us. >> we're a bit more positive on sterling.ear's what some expert been telling us. >> we're a bit more positive on sterling.'s what some experts h been telling us. >> we're a bit more positive on sterling. >> what people are attracted to is the fact that over the century, you had an asset class that has always paid on time and

with interest. and even with market chaos or even more structural problems, that has happened. we've even had cases during war where covered bonds have been paid on time and in full. >> i think equity markets as well since the summer have turned more positive on the back of policy intervention in the u.s. and europe and asia, as well. >> the hurricane is making a mess of travel plans. airports from washington, d.c. to boston have been affected. philadelphia seeing the most cancellations for today's sched. amtrak has scrapped nearly all it rail service for the east coast, as well. hurricane sandy is also impacting operations of wall street banks. goldman sachs will keep it office open, but only for critical employees. other employees will work from

home or other offices. jp more pchlt mpmorgan is closin low lying areas. citigroup will operate its backup trading floor today in new jersey. it's interesting to wonder who is considered essential versus nonessential. in any case, president obama and mitt romney have canceled campaign events today due to hurricane sandy, this only eight days left before the presidential election with polls showing an extremely tight race. joining us now for more is columnist and blger f blogger a contributor. james, thank you for getting up this morning. and you mentioned even just getting to the office, you are already seeing the rain. >> i have to admit that as i was coming in, i was -- even though i love cnbc and i love this show, i was regretting it just a little bit as the rain was heavier than expected and as soon as i'm done, i'm heading home and going deep into the bunker. >> yes, be safe.

we know we see the path of the storm seems to be aiming directly for pennsylvania, although the impact because it's so large being felt all up and down the east coast. a lot of people wondering what this will mean for the election tuesday. >> well, one affect it could have, it could freeze the election wherever it is right now for the next half week or so. i think people will be focused on this hurricane coverage. you're not going to have the candidates campaigning certainly not in virginia or north carolina, probably not pennsylvania either. and depending on -- if you're mitt romney, you think you're ahead, maybe freezing the race is great. if you're barack obama and you think you're ahead, so much the better. >> because there are concerns this will keep people home and who would that i am pampact the? >> the president supposedly has a fantastic ground game getting voters out early. to the extent that's a big part of the president's strategy,

then keeping people home is bad for the president. >> it's interesting, too, to wonder if this will make from be look more presidential. anytime someone is up there talking about protecting people as long as he doesn't botch this one completely, it would seem to maybe help him. is that a reasonable view? >> i sort of have two theories. one is the rally around the president theory which he'll be on tv a lot as commander in chief, so i think that could help him. on the other hand, if you have millions of people who haven't had a raise in a long time, incomes are down, all of a sawed they have to go to the store and spend lots of money on supplies or generators orboarding up their homes, they might remember, gee, i really don't have very much in savings and this is eating away with what i do have and the economy hasn't been very good for me. maybe that will help mitt romney. >> and where do the polls stand? because romney has had more momentum, but things still seem roughly tied? >> in the national polls, it

looks like romney has a lead. in the state polls, it looks like the president is doing better. but the state polls, the president is only getting about 46% to 48%, not a great number for an incumbent. and also mitt romney seems to be doing better in other places where he wasn't expected to do well like minnesota. so it's an extraordinarily close race and i think you have a situation where both sides think they'll win but aren't really positive about it. >> stewart, from an investment point of view, who would you prefer to see take this on tuesday? >> the way we look at this is both short term and medium to longer term. short term, if romney gets in, then the market could actually suffer a little bit if he starts to be a bit more conservative on the fiscal side, obviously there is talk bernanke won't get a second term. who will come in. in terms of longer term, america

has to tackle the fiscal deficit. if it continues to have a trillion dollar deficit every year, that will be a long term negative. so maybe the romney/ryan ticket is longer term positive. >> and jim, what prospect is there at this point for any resolution of the fiscal cliff before year end regardless who have is in the white house? >> i don't expect it to be resolved before year end. and i think the best scenario is a temporary stay of execution. go into maybe march or something where there will have to be some big decisions made both on tax reform and entitlements. but i think there will be a ton of uncertainty heading in to 2013. >> thank you again for getting up for us. be safe on your way back. and as mentioned, we want your hurricane stories. especially if you're on wall street. maybe you remember the last type the new york stock exchange closed in 1985.

world wide at cnbc.co cnbc.com, @cnbcwex, as well. and still to come, cnbc's own scott cohn is in new york as hurricane sandy is about to make the landfall. we have big dreams. one is for a clean, domestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.

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hurricane sandy is heading towards wall street affecting trade. you can find out why hurricane sandy has grown into what some are calling a frankenstorm. and as the weather front moves, you can read up on what impack authorities are bracing for. and what about the economic impact? you can also find out about the 10 most expensive hurricanes in u.s. history. stewart, the number one storm may not surprise people. i'm not going to actually name it for the sake of maybe making people go find out themselves, but $45 billion worth of damage just last year for hurricane irene, several billion related to that. does it m needle from a macro point of view? >> from the top level, not really so much. obviously the damage has to be paid for and obviously that

might mean infrastructure spending. so you take away from with one hand, you gain with the other. obviously different sectors will have different takes and so on. i think the thing we're thinking about at the moment is that the u.s. economy together with the global economy is very fragile. we have low growth if not recession in europe and i think the financial markets are also very fragile, not justs because they're struggling to make gains where you have the tug of war between the core fundamentals versus the central bank liquidity, but volume has been so thin all year and then we have this event which could dry up the volume further. so things are flanragile. >> and low volume means liquid markets and could see dislocations? >> if we see for whatever reason some sort of selling coming into the market with low liquidity, you could see the market can down quite quickly.

>> basically whenever you have conditions that aren't normal, more likely to see this kind of thing happen. >> absolutely. so if you're a short term trader, i would be very worried about taking any positions. if you're a longer term investor, just sit there and grin and bear it and hope things begin to stabilize. but it's all confluence of both the vulnerable economy, lack of liquidity in the market which is caught between central bank liquidity and deteriorating fundamentals. and if we see selling coming into the market, it could cause a big let down. >> okay. stewart will stick around. but a reminder that these are your headlines. sandy is barreling towards the east coast in what could be the biggest storm to ever hit the u.s. mainland. all u.s. stock markets will be closed today. the nyse may close tuesday, as we. its first weather related closures in 27 years. wen and his family are fighting back against reports of accumulated billions in wealth.

and still to come, we'll have the latest from the weather channel after the break.

hurricane sandy is still several hours away from making landfall on the east coast, but the impact is already being felt. transportation has ground to a halt as new york and other major eastern cities have shut down mass transit. airlines have canceled flights and amtrak has scrapped most of its rail service. joining us now, scott cohn in battery park at the very tip of lower manhattan. hi, scott. >> reporter: hi, kelly. it's very deceptive. we can tell the water is coming up a little bit even though it is low tide. the concern here among everything else is the storm surge that will almost certainly

put the area where i am eventually under water a few hours from now. the hope was that they were going to be able to at least do electronic trading as you know on the new york stock exchange. that has changed as of late last night. they realized they would have to get too many people into offices at member firms and so there was a coordinated decision among all the markets to stop equity trading all together for monday, electronic and otherwise. . electronic and physical trading. so it is the first time in a the nyse has closed for a wealth related closure for an entire day since 1985, hurricane fwlor i can't. and if they go ahead with the plan which is potentially to close tomorrow, it would be the first two day closure since 1888. they did not like to close these markets for any great length of time. that's a two day wealther relatd closure. bank branchs are closing in

manhattan. the city has essentially ground to a halt because they're concerned now about high winds that will start really picking up as the storm gets closer and closer to the new york city area. as you said, the transit system has been shut down. they're trying to tell people to stay home to the extent that they can. and indeed manhattan, although it's very early in the morning here, is quiet and expected to stay that way. the question now is you power outages that are likely to take place and how long it will take for this area to get back to business. but right now, again, equity trading in the u.s. is closed. equity futures also willic trad. and energy trading as well. energy trading will trade electronically, the nymex with the floor will close. so we're seeing even before the storm hits a significant financial impact here. >> that's for sure. scott cohn, stay safe and than you very much for that this morning. take a quick look at u.s.

futures which are among the few things actually trading in the u.s. this morning. dow jones shedding about -- well, futures down 69 points. implied open perhaps less relevant today than it typically is. the markets cannot be closed for more than three days, so if talk of closing down tomorrow as the effect of the storm moves through is the case, wednesday becomes the interesting question. joining us is ben liechtenstein. what are you doing today. >> >> i'm actually just getting news of this. it's really early here in chicago, but going to bed last night, as far as i knew, we were going to have a full trading session today with pits open. but really i think the story is right now, i hate to shift away from the weather focus because that's testify lay major story and a lot of uncertainty in terms of wednesday if they were to get hit by a huge surge of sorts, but the interesting activity is in the market and it's technically if you look at the levels from last week, we

bleached a major level in a couple major markets across the board. the s&ps are still holding in there for the most part, this key level of 1400, but if you look at the nasdaq and reduce sell, they've been leading the way to the down side. so again, i've been looking at the russell for a few weeks now. that broader based market has been leading the way and it's taken out key levels of support that were put in earlier this year. i'm talking about ready tos the end of the summer leading into september, a big month to the up month. first two weeks were huge and basically we've pulled all those gains back now and we're trading at those levels and below. but the s&p level of 1400 is key. >> i wonder, too, how much we should read into trading for the next couple of days as stewart has been mentioning, likely to see liquid trade, which x.age rated moves. is there any way they can take advantage of this or should they steer clear? >> i think what it comes down to is the best way of saying it's

basically a coin toss. certainly you could have huge profitable trades, but on the other hand, could you certainly get caught on the wrong side. personally for me, this is the kind of day where i leak to stay on the sidelines. there will be multiple better trading days to come, if you will, than this. this just is one of those irregular type days where it's kind of a coin toss. >> i totally agree. if you don't have to trade, i'd rather not be trying to make a decision. who knows what the storm will bring. it won't be great news. who knows whether you're trading at a good price. >> ben, in terms of the actual mechanics of trading, what impact are you seeing in chicago, how are people expressing their view? >> i didn't hear the end of the question. >> how are people if they want to express a trade today, what's the best way to do so? sg the only way to trade is through the electronic platform.

and that's going to be closing down 15 minutes before normal. again which would be 8:15 central time as far as i know. so again, we'll see -- that would be the only opportunity. >> and i wonder what i am pact there may be on trading across europe and asia if people are looking to other markets. >> right now we're not seeing a lot of impact. still holding on to the lows from last week. last week was a very weak week for the market and again continuation what have we have been seeing over the past couple weeks. but for the most part, this 1400 level is right where we're trading and the market will chop it up around this level. >> we've seen a lot of companies canceling earnings releases which is somewhat strange because they released when markets closed anyway. so why not just get those numbers out? >> shares won't be able to trade a short time after is the

concern. so it's just going with the flow. no real reason why they can't release the earnings. just whether they want to. >> we're supposed to get personal income and spending out of the u.s. ben, do you expect that we'll see the release of these reports today?i actually do. but later in the week, we have the unemployment data coming out, adp employment report, so traders will be already looking forward towards the end of the week. again, while i don't want to be little this event because clearly potentially shut down for two days now is a unique event in itself. but i also want to again just shift the focus back to the technical levels and again to the fundamentals that are important which are that 1400 level in the s&p z and tand the unemployment data. >> absolutely. ben, thanks very much. a quiet day it sounds like ahead

in chicago. stewart, also want to thank you for coming in this morning. now we want to take a quick look at what the latest is in terms of sandy's path. and for that we're heading over to the weather channel. we're joined by danielle banks. what can you tell us? >> well, the storm has strengthened as of the 5:00 a.m. advisory. we are talking about 85-mile-an-hour winds and the pressure has also dropped 946 millibars. in terms of the movement, the progression further north, still taking place. we're waiting to see more of that northwest ward turn. but current movement to the north right now at 15 miles an hour. so its has picked up in intensity and picked up just a hair in speed. in terms of the timing of this, we really do have to keep an eye as we go through the day into tonight. and this is not a one and done type of deal. the effects will be so far reaching even after the storm system makes landfall. we're still going to be talking about snow on the back side of the system, that is another

follow-up story that you're probably going to hear a lot more about going through today. and especially into tonight. the storm surge forecast, this is something everyone needs to be aware of especially if you're in a location that really is going to see the intensity of it. we could talk four to eight feet in some area, six to eight in others. storm surge something everybody needs to know with and then of course the power outages. unfortunately some people in this wide scope could wiped up being without power possibly if a week or more and we know that our linemen and women will be out there doing what they can to get it that power restored as quickly as possible. guys, back to you. >> makes me wonder what will happen with the calculation of jobless claim series, with other economic data later this week, as well. take a quick look at u.s. futures which are one of the few things trading this morning. we'll leave you with u.s. "squawk box." [ female announcer ] e-trade was founded on the simple belief

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good morning. hurricane sandy slamming into the east coast. winds are picking up and the rain is coming towards the new york city area. thousands have been evacuated from low lying areas. u.s. stock and option markets will be closed today and possibly tomorrow. bond markets will remain open until noon. and stocks are weaker across europe with the u.s. calling off equity trading. more worries about a rescue deal for spain. it's monday, october 29th, 2012. "squawk box" begins right now.